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This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about imperial ideology, imperial governance and provincial loyalty in the Roman Empire. It argues that the official discourse of the imperial government, and the principles of legitimation to which it gave voice, found a ready audience in the polyglot population of the Roman provinces. It suggests that provincials internalized imperial ideology during the long periods of tranquillity that characterized the first and second centuries A.D. and that the empire survived its crises because of what had been achieved in times of...

This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about imperial ideology, imperial governance and provincial loyalty in the Roman Empire. It argues that the official discourse of the imperial government, and the principles of legitimation to which it gave voice, found a ready audience in the polyglot population of the Roman provinces. It suggests that provincials internalized imperial ideology during the long periods of tranquillity that characterized the first and second centuries A.D. and that the empire survived its crises because of what had been achieved in times of peace.